Music

Monday, February 18, 2013

The weekend brings more updates from the land of the Muriel
Awards as we inch ever closer to the unveiling of the big awards.

There’s a certain level of predictability that comes along
with any awards compiled by the polling of a group, and the Muriels are no
different in that regard. Where the Muriels do it right is in publishing sort
essays from some of its selected voices in support of the winner in each
category. It is precisely this feature that takes the edge off of the tendency for movies
like The Tree of Life last year, Moonrise Kingdom and this year’s winner
for Best Cinematography lining up to grab most of the glory. It’s also why I am
glad that Steve and Paul also print links to the complete breakdown of voting
in each category, so we can get a sense of what came close, and how far afield
of the pack are some of the voters who register single votes for movies they
love that haven’t a chance in hell of winning a consensus.

The awards for the year’s Best Cinematography
went not to Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (third place) or Skyfall (second place), but instead… Danny Baldwin is on hand to express his love for the winner. (click here)

Similarly, the prizes for Best Screenplay and Best Ensemble both
ended up going to another one of those favorites. Matt Lynch checks in to tell us why this
ensemble deserved the honors, while Matt Lynch shows us what impressed him most
precisely about how the screenplay for the winner was written, and thusly
translated to the screen.

No real surprises to be had in the unveiling of the 50th Anniversary Award for Best Film of 1962 either. Your winner is not…

(Bunuel came in thirdsies, and he got my #1 slot)

But Matt Lotti packs in a desert vista’s worth of
observations in detailing the appeal of the Muriels winner, which placed #2 on
my ballot. (My other choices: Lolita,
Ride the High Country and Hell Is for Heroes. You can see where
they ended up on the list by clicking here.)

And easily the most agonizing process of the Muriels voting
this year was responding to the query about the Best Film of the 1970s. We were
allowed 10 ranked choices, which ain’t a lot when you’re talking about this decade.
My own list was culled down from an initial list of about 60 choices that came
off the top of my head, and to get to a paltry 10 felt a lot like chopping off
my own limbs and those of my children. (I’m being dramatic, okay, but you see
my point.) And after all that, the only movie in my top 10, which just happened
to be the Muriels winner, ranked only #7 for me. Nine other movies made up the
rest of my list. They were, starting from #10…

Bryce Wilson organizizes his thoughts about the winner here; the breakdown of voting can be found here.

Coming up over the course of this week as we lead up to the
unveiling of the Muriels Best Picture winners—Best Editing, Best Director, Best
Actor, Best Actress, and my favorite category, Best Cinematic Moment.